Mass Strike in Poland 1980

Thirty years ago, in the summer of 1980, the working class in Poland made the world hold its breath. A gigantic strike movement spread throughout the country: several hundred thousand workers came out on wildcat strike in numerous cities, making the ruling class tremble in Poland and across the globe.

The lesson of the 1984 miners' strike for the working class today is that all unions, with their rule books, their bureaucracy, sectional and corporatist set ups, and relations with the Labour Party, are part of the state and work against the self-organisation and extension of struggles under the control of workers themselves.